PMW report brings Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Holland to stop funding Palestinian women’s committee WATC that named a youth center after a terrorist

Headline: “Women’s Affairs Technical Committee: The donor states have stopped the funding due to Martyr Mughrabi’s name”
“The Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC) condemned the accusations of incitement and violence that were directed against it by a group of donor states that constitute the H uman Rights and International [Humanitarian] Law Secretariat, including Denmark, Holland, Sweden, and Switzerland.
These states stopped funding the committee because it established an empowerment center for women and young people in the village of Burqa, north of Ramallah, which is named after Martyr (Shahida) Dalal Mughrabi (i.e., terrorist who led murder of 37, 12 of them children. PMW exposed the naming of the center, which led to widespread condemnation from donors and demands for the funding to be returned.) – which according to them is considered incitement and encouragement of violence.
In a statement that was distributed at a press conference held at the committee’s headquarters in Ramallah today, Sunday [Oct. 29, 2017], the committee condemned the donor states’ decision, [which was made] as part of a plan concerning human rights and international humanitarian law, to punish a Palestinian women’s institution that is committed to human rights, international law, and humanitarian law. The committee considered this to be an adoption of the Israeli occupation’s narrative regarding the history of the legal Palestinian struggle as a liberation movement against colonialism and the Israeli occupation that continue to this day, which is identical to all the other liberation movements in history. This is while Israel, the occupying force, is not required to give an accounting of the most awful crimes that it has committed and is still committing against our people.
The committee said that this political decision is a dangerous sign that not only indicates the fact that the states are not fulfilling their duty according to international and humanitarian law, but also their submission to the false Israeli occupation narrative and its pressures…
The committee expressed its complete rejection of the attempt to use funding as a means of political extortion, and emphasized that the cancelation of the funding by the secretariat will cause great damage to the committee’s activities and its programs to strengthen Palestinian women’s participation in all areas of life. The committee also emphasized that it will not agree to exchange its principles and national and social role for conditional funding…
The committee called on the partners in the civil society institutions to stand together against this political extortion by several of the donors, and to thwart Israel’s attempts to use donors in order to besiege sectors within our people and our national institutions. The committee warned against the dangerous consequences that agreeing to these terms is liable to cause, as this decision against the committee and the conditions that were placed before it are likely to be the start of a torrent of dictates that are nationally unacceptable. This is as the national duty and historical responsibility that is placed on all of our shoulders requires us to unify efforts against these policies and conditions, and emphasize our loyalty to our cause, our national and legal rights, and our people’s struggle that is continuing until the achievement of freedom, return [for the refugees], and independence…
Women’s Affairs Technical Committee board of directors Head Samia Bamia emphasized that ‘We explained our position to the [donor] representatives, [which is] that they do not have a right to punish us because accusing us of incitement is unacceptable, and because we will not be silent and will oppose this step, and we will not agree to erase our memory or condemn our history [in exchange] for funding. Therefore, we have decided to turn to the public, which we hope will act and help us, and we will not allow them to accuse us due to a national position.’
She also said: ‘The true criminal is the occupation, and it is the one worthy of condemnation.’”

Women's Affairs Technical Committee (WATC) - a Palestinian NGO committed to advocate Palestinian women's rights. WATC states on its website that many of its members are also members of the PLO but the WATC itself is not a member of the PLO.

Dalal Mughrabi led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978, when she and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway, murdering 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70.